BLACK HEARTS

Ludicra get all romantic on us

Thanks to bands like Alcest, Wolves in the Throne Room, and Brooklyn's own Litugy, the current wave of blogger-endorsed black metal is shedding its agoraphobic and icy veneer, moving more toward the sensitive, the transcendent, the totally fucking weird. San Francisco's long-standing ickos Ludicra are set to be leading lights in 2010, thanks to their romantic new album The Tenant, which sizzles like bone-grinding black metal, but bleeds like lovelorn indie rock—occasionally churning along in jaunty midtempo chug, crooning in gorgeous swaths of harmony, or wrapping itself in warm acoustic guitars. Locals Krallice fall more squarely on the bonkers side of the equation, mixing the manic monster-shredding of Colin Marston (Behold . . . The Arctopus) and Mick Barr (Orthrelm), turning black metal into something fluffy and weird that resembles a Nintendo final boss, a flock of birds, or a faulty modem. The bill is rounded out by two more stellar locals: Castevet, who mix their corpsepaint jackhammer with the angles of bands like Jesus Lizard, and Atakke, who are basically an awesome punk band in metal spikes.
Sun., April 18, 7 p.m., 2010